Dr Stocker, an assistant professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech, said: ‘This new find highlights just how much there is still to learn about the Late Triassic ecosystem, and how much we find when we just look a little closer.

‘We’re familiar with the charismatic archosaurs from the Chinle Formation, but we know that based on other ecosystems, they should make up a small percentage of the animals that lived together.

‘With this new focus we’re able to fill in a lot of those missing smaller components with new discoveries.’

The hip bones are thought to have come from multiple individuals and are long and hollow.

Dr Stocker added: ‘The Chinle frog could fit on the end of your finger.’

Even though the fossils are part of the Chinle frog family, she said they are not yet naming the specific fossils.

‘We refrain from naming this Chinle frog because we are continuing to process microvertebrate matrix that will likely yield additional skull and postcranial material that has the potential to be even more informative,’ Dr Stocker added.

The research team said that the Chinle frog also shares similarities with Prosalirus and Triadobatrachus, from the Early Jurassic and Early Triassic, respectively.

Dr Stocker said: ‘These are the oldest frogs from near the equator.

‘The oldest frogs overall are roughly 250 million years old from Madagascar and Poland, but those specimens are from higher latitudes and not equatorial.’

Dr Sterling Nesbitt, also from Virginia Tech, said: ‘Now we know that tiny frogs were present approximately 215 million years ago from North America, we may be able to find other members of the modern vertebrate communities in the Triassic Period.’